Print (EasyLanguage)

[Tams 20]

This thread is about the PRINT keyword in EasyLanguage

 

 

Print

 

Sends one or more specified expressions to the PowerLanguage Editor Output Log or another output target, if specified.

Any combination of string, true/false, numerical series, or numerical expressions can be specified.

 

 

Usage

 

Print([OutputTarget],Expression1,Expression2,etc.)

 

Parameter inside the square brackets is optional

 

 

 

Parameters

 

OutputTarget - an optional parameter; specifies an output target other then the PowerLanguage Editor Output Log; the parameter must be followed by a comma.

 

There are two optional output targets:

 

Printer

 

Specifies the default printer as the output target.

 

File("PathFilename")

 

Where: PathFilename - a string expression specifying the path and filename

 

Specifies an ASCII file as the output target; if the specified file does not exist, the file will be created.

 

If OutputTarget is not specified, the output will be sent to the PowerLanguage Editor Output Log.

 

 

 

Expression - a string, true/false, numerical series, or numerical expression; any number of valid expressions, separated by commas, can be used

 

A string expression must be enclosed in quotation marks:

 

"String Expression"

 

 

A numerical expression can be formatted to specify the minimum number of characters, including the decimal point, and the number of decimal places, to be used for the output:

 

Expression:C: D

 

Where:

C - minimum number of characters

D - number of decimal places

 

The default output format for a numerical expression is two decimal places and a minimum of seven characters.

 

If the number of decimal places in the numerical expression is more than the specified number, the value will be will be rounded off to the specified number of decimal places.

 

If the number of characters in the output is less than the specified minimum, leading spaces will be added to bring the output to the specified minimum value.

 

 

 

Examples

 

Print(.1);

will print 0.10 in the PowerLanguage Editor Output Log, with three leading spaces inserted

 

Print(1.555555:6:3);

will print 1.556 in the PowerLanguage Editor Output Log, with one leading space inserted

 

Print(Printer,"Print Test");

will send the string expression "Print Test" to the default printer

 

Print(File("C: \test.txt"),CurrentDate,CurrentTime);

will save the output of CurrentDate and CurrentTime to the test.txt file in the root directory of the C: hard drive

 

 

.

[BlowFish 10]

It is probably worth mentioning that Print can be very useful for debugging something that runs but does not run correctly or to check that things are consistent.

 

You can use print statements to output variables or to help monitor the path of the program through loops and conditional statements.

[aaa 10]

inputs:

Length( 14 ) ;

 

if CurrentBar > Length then

Plot1( CMO( Length ), "CMO" ) ;

Plot2( 0, "Zero" ) ;

print( plot1 ) ;

 

In the CMI indicators nothing is printed in the output PLE window except 53.49

 

print( plot1 ) = what is this for ?

 

For debugging ?

 

In case of errors it will print them ?

[Tams 20]

It is supposed to print out the value of "plot1" at the end of each bar.

You can use the output for debugging,

or if it is output to a text file, for record keeping.

 

 

variations you can try:

 

print( text(plot1) ) ;

 

print( NumToStr(plot1, 6) ) ;

 

print( BarNumber, plot1 ) ;

 

print( " Date=", date, " Time=", time, " CMI=", plot1 ) ;

[aaa 10]

I like this one

 

print(File("D:\text.asc"),plot1);

[Tams 20]

How I use the Print statement to debug:

 

http://www.traderslaboratory.com/forums/f56/help-trend-strength-indicator-6101.html

[aaa 10]

It is probably worth mentioning that Print can be very useful for debugging something that runs but does not run correctly or to check that things are consistent.

 

You can use print statements to output variables or to help monitor the path of the program through loops and conditional statements.

 

Everything is said, specially for perfect beginners.

[Tams 20]

I have posted a PRINT example here:

http://www.traderslaboratory.com/forums/f46/scan-print-6194.html

 

 

 

 

p.s.

it also uses the keyword FILEAPPEND.

[Tams 20]

if you amend this code to the indicator in the previous post,

your file log will get an automatic filename in this format:

 

symbolname-YYYYMMDDhhmm

 

e.g.: ESZ9-200910221313

 

i.e. you can have this code in any indicators, in any chart, with any symbol... your log files will be given a different name automatically.

 

 

// modified section

 

var:

File.name("");

 

if currentbar = 1 then

File.name =

"c:\docs\"

+ getsymbolname

+"-"

+ numtostr(currentdate+19000000,0)

+ numtostr(currenttime,0)

+ ".txt";

 

 

 

// Scan Print (for use in scanner)
// version: beta 0.2
// Author: TAMS
// License: public use
// 
// this indicator is for demonstration purpose only
//
// Description:
// this indicator scans the last bar on the chart,
// if the close is higher than previous bar's high,
// it will make a printout to
// a) the Output log window,
// b) the printer, or
// c) a file.
//
// see this thread for discussion
// http://www.traderslaboratory.com/forums/f46/scan-print-6194.html
//

Input:
Send.to.Log(true),
Send.to.printer(false),
Send.to.file(false);

var:
File.name("c:\docs\scan_print.txt");

{========== end of variables ==========}

{---------- auto filename ----------}

if currentbar = 1 then
File.name = 
"c:\docs\" 
+ getsymbolname 
+"-"
+ numtostr(currentdate+19000000,0)
+ numtostr(currenttime,0)
+ ".txt";

{---------- end of auto filename ----------}


if time <> time[1] then
begin
if c > h[1] then
begin
	if Send.to.Log then
	print(NumToStr(date+19000000,0), " C>H[1] " + getsymbolname);

	if Send.to.printer then
	print(printer, NumToStr(date+19000000,0), " C>H[1] " + getsymbolname);

	if Send.to.file then
	Fileappend(file.name, NumToStr(date+19000000,0) + " C>H[1] " + getsymbolname + newline);
end;
end;

[BlueHorseshoe 10]

This thread is about the PRINT keyword in EasyLanguage

 

.

 

Exactly the information that I was looking for - Thanks Tams!

 

BlueHorseshoe

[Tams 20]

Exactly the information that I was looking for - Thanks Tams!

 

BlueHorseshoe

 

you are welcome !

[Investor 10]

Hello all, I am new here.

 

I have a few questions about print().

 

1) If I am trying to get strategy/indicator data out of tradestation en mass into csv files in order to analyze it with other programs (excel, SAS etc) is print() the most efficient way to do this? Or is there some better way I can get all of my charts to print data automatically?

 

2) Is there a way to get column names to show up? E.g. "Date" "Close" "Moving Average" etc.?

 

I have tried the following:

 

If Currentbar = 1 then

print(file("C:\User\filename.txt"),"Date",",","Close",",","MA")

else

print(file("C:\User\filename.txt"),ELDateToString(Date),",",c,",",MA);

 

It works well enough (although it does skip the first bar of data) but it seems there must be a better built-in way?

 

3) I'd like to create an indicator called "PrintData" whose inputs include the file name and data to be printed. But easylanguage doesn't appear to let you treat the file name as an input. So print(file(FileNameInput),...) returns the error "File name expected here".

Is there any way I can get around this?

 

Side note: I only need end of day data, not intra-day, so computation time isn't a major concern.

 

Thanks,

Investor

[BlueHorseshoe 10]

Hello all, I am new here.

 

I have a few questions about print().

 

1) If I am trying to get strategy/indicator data out of tradestation en mass into csv files in order to analyze it with other programs (excel, SAS etc) is print() the most efficient way to do this? Or is there some better way I can get all of my charts to print data automatically?

 

Welcome to TL, Investor!

 

I have come across more efficient methods in older books (eg. Thomas Stridsman's 'Trading Systems that Work'), in which the data is exported wholesale from tradestation, but have never been able to get them to work. Currently, I do almost exactly what you're doing, as I too have only ever needed end of day equity data. Still, it's clunky, and wide open to human error . . .

 

Hopefully Tams or someone else might have some suggestions?

 

BlueHorseshoe

[Investor 10]

Hi BlueHorseshoe,

 

Thanks for your response. I'm glad to see others have been using the same method, so I'm not completely off the mark at least. I would be grateful if Tams or someone else could offer a more efficient way.

Any thoughts from anyone?

 

Investor

[onesmith 10]

Right click on a blank area in a chart and select View Data Window. Then right click in the Data Window and select Save. Specify .CSV for the filename extension (not txt) and it will export all the values that are plotted and automatically include column headings.

 

When exporting from within code you should also use csv rather than txt for the filetype. And FileAppend (instead of print) because it accepts variable filenames.

 

Hello all, I am new here.

 

I have a few questions about print().

 

1) If I am trying to get strategy/indicator data out of tradestation en mass into csv files in order to analyze it with other programs (excel, SAS etc) is print() the most efficient way to do this? Or is there some better way I can get all of my charts to print data automatically?

 

2) Is there a way to get column names to show up? E.g. "Date" "Close" "Moving Average" etc.?

 

I have tried the following:

 

If Currentbar = 1 then

print(file("C:\User\filename.txt"),"Date",",","Close",",","MA")

else

print(file("C:\User\filename.txt"),ELDateToString(Date),",",c,",",MA);

 

It works well enough (although it does skip the first bar of data) but it seems there must be a better built-in way?

 

3) I'd like to create an indicator called "PrintData" whose inputs include the file name and data to be printed. But easylanguage doesn't appear to let you treat the file name as an input. So print(file(FileNameInput),...) returns the error "File name expected here".

Is there any way I can get around this?

 

Side note: I only need end of day data, not intra-day, so computation time isn't a major concern.

 

Thanks,

Investor

[duane5000 10]

Although TradeStation does not appear to support dynamic file names, we can write that file name as the first item on each line to produce a file that can be filtered externally. I use Textpad for bookmarking lines that contain search criteria, then cut/paste bookmarked lines into a new file. If saving as a CSV, you can use excel to filter the document on same.